Growing cannabis indoors has a significant carbon footprint. Colorado State University researchers investigated energy use from indoor cannabis cultivation and reported their findings.
“When you look at the total emissions from indoor cannabis cultivation in Colorado, it’s pretty much equivalent to the coal mining industry in Colorado,” Jason Quinn, Ph.D., the director of Colorado State University’s Sustainability Research Laboratory, tells NBC.
“The findings of this study tell us what we already know: that cultivators need better access to technology and innovation so that they can reduce costs and their climate impact,” says California Lightworks CEO George Mekhtarian. “Regulatory reform is key to expanding access for cultivators to innovation and technology.”
Mekhtarian points to the MegaDrive system his company introduced as a sustainable solution to the industry’s climate impact. California Lightworks’ MegaDrive technology lowers the barrier to adopting high efficiency LEDs while increasing the mass, both in terms of grams per square foot and grams per watt, as well as quality of yielded crops.
The advanced LED technology reduces fixture costs by up to 30% and installation costs by up to 80%, the company says.
